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Kitonese
The Kitonese language (officially ''Ki Ngok 俟言; Keoi Ki 言俟 also used'') is an Austronesian language spoken by around 680,000 people, primarily in Kiton (Kiton ''俟東)'' where it is the national language. Since 63BC, Kitonese has been written with Chinese characters, Kekwefu (kekwefu n tayun ''文鄣, lit. "Chinese writing"), though its vocabulary consists mainly of Sanskrit words, making it one of the few languages to combine Sanskrit and Chinese influences on a major scale. The language is highly stratified between sociolects; topolects vary considerably little. History The history of Kitonese is largely unknown to historical linguists. While Kiton lies in the region of Austronesia in the Pacific (located near Taiwan and the Philipines), it does not belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language family. It displays some peculiar features not common to the linguistic area, such as case declensions, verb conjugations and a SOV word order, leading some to classify it as an Indo-European language, a move which has caused much controversy. The language uses Chinese characters, but does not use much modern Chinese vocabulary. This is probably due to Chinese contact in the 5th century BCE during the end Zhou period, leading to the absorption of Chinese characters as a new form of writing, although the Chinese characters they did accept were an archaic and dialectal form of Ancient Chinese. This explains, for example, the word 社會 (lit. gathering of shrines) does not mean "society" unlike most Sinoxenic languages, as link was not drawn during the brief period of Chinese contact. The language known today as Kitonese was the local dialect of Akelaksa ''(keoi ake laksa ''言域焦), the ancient capital of Kiton. When King Sengyan ''(Sengyan Kimaita ''成寅王) moved his capital to Akelaksa, he declared the local dialect as the national language. To this day, Kitonese is widely used and universally understood in the Kingdom. While Kitonese is the official language in all constituent kingdoms of Kiton, the State Union of Ailongeng'ai uses the indigenous Sari'iki language as the official state language, which is part of the Tongic group of the Austronesian language family. Phonology ...... Orthography Kekwefu writing ...... Pronunciation ...... Grammar Syntax The Kitonese language follows the SOV pattern very rigidly. This means that a sentence must always end in a verb. Although this rule may seem unnecessary due to case markings, this helps determine the semantic function of a word as verbs and derived nouns are represented by the same word (eg. ''sekeh 為 doing and seku 為 action). The SOV pattern means that the Subject preceeds the Object and finally the Verb. This is a simplistic model as word order becomes more complex with more cases, but that will be discussed later. The SOV model forms the basic structure of a sentence in Kitonese, and therefore these forms are not marked by any case markers. 持 蹴鞠踢Die Subject of a sentence Nouns <> Although nouns are not declined according to grammatical number, gender or definitiveness, they are declined for grammatical case by particles known as karakah 字仔. (IMPORTANT: while karakah precede the noun in writing; they follow the noun in speech. This keeps in line with Classical Chinese granmar.) Case refers to the grammatical function of the noun in a phrase or sentence. The cases, direct translations of their Sanskrit counterparts, are: #Nominative: Sekeyana/Kart''a 為者 "agent" # Accusative: ''Seku/Karman 為 "deed" # Genetive: Sarukwahesu/Sambhanda ''舉髻 "attachment" # Instrumental: ''Soseki/Karana 所為 "instrument" #Dative:'' Saruprakesu/Sampradana'' 舉高予 "bestowal" #Ablative:'' Safungkesu/Apadana'' 離予 "taking off" # Locative: Hejisoseki/Adhikarana 首所為 "location" #Vocative: Yaneh/- ''嗚呼 "oh!" Nominative/''Sekeyana The nominative case marks the subject of a sentence, as implied by the Kitonese name. It has no karakah and is marked by a space in Kekwefu orthography.Let's look at an example: Chirifu walks. The word chirifu ''持 means "upholding". It is a direct translation of the term "dharma" and is a common Kitonese name. Here the agent (Chirifu) is the one performing the action (walking). This would be translated as: Chirifu pasiheh. 持 走 Note that Kitonese has no full stops. The only punctuations are the comma and semicolon, explained later. Accusative/''Seku The accusative case marks the direct object of a verb. Its karakah is ahi, with no equivalent in Kekwefu. Another example: Hitikaya kicked the ball. To translate this, we need to know that verbs always finish a clause. The translated sentence is: Hitikaya paopoi ahi rikehate. 柱子 蹴鞠踢 Genitive/''Sarukwahesu'' The genitive form of a word carries the meaning of the word "of". If we give Hitikaya another ball: Hitikaya kicked Chirifu's ball. The genitive noun (Chirifu) goes after the "ball": Hitikaya paopoi neh Chirifu rihekate. 柱子 蹴鞠矣持踢 The karakah neh 矣 is one of two genitive postpositions. It implies that the genitive noun owns the object. The second genitive, nguh 尹, implies the genitive noun is lower in position to the object, such that it is inappropriate to say that the genitive noun "owns" it: Injeh's god is Hiohoi. (Injeh worships Hiohoi.) Translated, it is: Aruluh nguh Injeh naei Hiohoi tahendeh. 神尹音戒 乃孝亥也有 This example brings up a good topic: the predicate. The predicate sentence equates two nouns or ascribes a quality to a noun. The word naei 乃 comes between the two equating phrases and ends with the copula taheh 也. In this case, the honorific tahendeh 也有 is used. The honorific will be explained later.' Instrumental/''Soseki The instrumental case denotes that the noun used to perform an action. It carries the meaning of "by" and is represented by the karakah sih 以. When meaning "with" the karakah shieh - sih 與 is used. The word is the same, simply with different kekwefu. Let's try a sentence: Tara walks with Sileki. ''Shieh sih ''acts as a circumfix: Tara shieh Silekisih pasiheh. 星 與析麗俟走 ' Verbs The lexical form of verbs end in -eh. This the form found in dictionaries. *''taraheh 行'' cross *''kanahe 食'' dine f. *''nyaweh 嚼'' eat inf. *''aukeleh 去 or 格至'' go Kitonese syntax dictates that verbs be placed at the end of a sentence. Take the informal sentence, ngwoi kanafu ahi nyawasi 吳 食嚼, "You are eating food". Notice how "food", kanafu 食 is derived from the verb kanaheh; nyaweh 嚼 also becomes nyawasi. These will be discussed later on. Honorific ..... Mood ..... Tense Present tense The present tense is unique that it conjugates with respect to person. Verbs follow the above pattern in conjugation. Aukeleh 格至 is part of a class of irregular verbs which are few in number and will be discussed later. Syntax Pronouns Formal Informal Miscellaneous Influences of Sanskrit and Chinese The whole of Kitonese culture is a unique mix of ancient Indic and Sinitic influences on the native Ki tradition. The obvious influences of Chinese is the Kengep n Tharun, the Chinese writing system brought by the early Chinese immigrant tribe of Shichi 矢子 in 2300BC as per tradition. (Shichi was the ancestor of many noble families in Kiton, including the present ruling house of Kangtaga 庚德.) The Chinese influences seen in Kitonese culture are markedly different from modern Chinese due to lack of contact for centuries since the mid-Shang dynasty and this helps us paint a clearer picture of the formative years of Chinese civilization. These influences tend to be kept to the noble tiers of society and longstanding tradition, such as royal naming customs and noble clan names. Indic culture, on the other hand, seems to be more widespread and pervasive throughout the common people. It was the language of literacy, religion and science for many centuries. Its prolific use meant the adaption of many Sanskrit words, changed to adapt to Kitonese pronunciations. Clear examples include suyah/Suyeh "sun/sun-god" cf. Sans. surya "sun" samujah "sea" cf. Sans. samudra "ocean" narijufu 'death" cf. Sans. mṛtyu "death". Words such as Sans. vṛksha "birch" evolved to wangasang "tree"; vṛksham -> urkshang -> urngsang -> wangsang -> wangasang. A non-exhaustive list of rules to predict the Kitonese equivalent of a Sanskrit word: # Ascertain its gender. It may end in ''-ah'' (male), ''-am'' (neuter) or ''-ā'' (female). # Convert ''-am to -ang''. Proper nouns are to be converted from ''-ah'' to -eh and'' -am'' to ''-eng''. # m'' may change to ''n. # r'' may change to ''y. # i'' and ''u may expand to eye ''and ''ewe. # hu ''and ''hv -> fu and f. (''This rule is constant throughout the Kitonese language.) # ''tr/ty -> tr/j; dr/dy -> j. # Therefore: ## m. suryah -> suyah; Saviter -> Sautreh ## n.'' ashyam -> ashang; madhu -> nedeweng'' ## f. dhenu -> tainu; kanta -> kanta Kitonese naming convention Kitonese names are usually Chinese, Indic or native in origin. Western names are increasingly popular, but this topic will only address indigenous naming traditions. Kitonese naming customs differ between commoners (those not in a chiefly clan), chiefly clan members and chiefs. Commoners Names of members of the general public contain patronyms rather than surnames. They tend to be Indic or native in origin, with Sinoxenic forms mostly at the high-working class and above. Top ten male names: #Hitika 柱 pillar #Suyikah 陽樣 solar #Shayok 甦 revival #Injeh 胤 Indra, Hindu king of gods #Chirifu 持 dharma #Kaji 速 speed #Ashuyin 御夫 Ashvin, Hindu version of Gemini #(grandfather's name)+ja (naneje neh aenakeh 名大矣父太）子 son of.. #Nowu 信 valour #Hiohoimule 孝亥僕 servant of Hiohoi Top ten female names: # Niyei 淑 virgin #Songma 桑摩 Soma'', Moon'' (The name Selena is also commonly spelt as such.) #Shachi 佘旨 Shachi, Hindu version of Hera #Sheti 和 peace #Puya 蓮花 lotus #Sarasuati 溪娘 Saraswati, Hindu goddess of wisdom #Rita 麗多 #Sita 喜多 #Einji 胤姬 Aindri, same person as Shachi (the names Angie and Angela are commonly spelt as such.) #Kita 姬多 Sample sentences Genesis 1:1 Nakadikweh, Parameshuarah akaman wa bumi ahi kinendeta. 大元刻、上帝 天及地造有了 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Narrator, Gen 1:1, KJV Bhagavad Gita 4:7 Waratajah yaneh! Hinnefu darma e herasang wa adarma e nakakoshitu taheh, yannefu atmanasuh shigahenjahe. 咨伯羅多嗣；該時法降亦非法大勢有、此時此時我本 將顯 (O son of Warata Bharata! Whenever there exists a derease of dharma and a prevalence of irreligiousity, then my soul will manifest.) "O son of Bharata! Wherever the law is in decline and irreligiousity is on the rise, then I will personally undergo incarnation." Krishna, BV 4:7 (translation own) Fake Death Note Rules # Waka naga 13 siahan gi neh, pukeyana Narijufu e Notegi ingawak ahi ma kekweheta, deh negi jiufu ahi wagakenjahe heka. 若間矣13日者，用者矣死書 名弗寫、即其生將斷必 (If in the span of 13 days, the user does not write names, his life will surely be cut.) If the user of the Death Note fails to consecutively write names within 13 days of each other, then the user will die. # Waka kakan neh nele sih eigi fuyutan gi woh eigi angnihan gi sisi note ahi na-ulefusawa yaraiba, deh saru jiufu ahi chuh shieh eisih mayehetawan narah gi wagakenjafuke heka. 若有人者 以便矣之殽或以便矣滅是書非用克成使，即庶生矣諸與此觸了人將斷必 If a person makes this notebook unusable by tearing it up or burning it, all the humans who have touched the Death Note will die. Vocabulary Formal Kitonese is on the left, informal on the right, separated by ";". Alternative forms separated by ",".